FONTANA – Kaiser High softball coach John Stevens said after Thursday’s 15-9 loss to visiting Fullerton Sunny Hills in the CIF-SS Division 3 quarterfinals that freshman pitcher Irene Herrera was the primary reasons his underdog Cats were in the postseason.

The Division 4 champs of a year ago started the season 3-7 and had moved up a division this season. Herrera (15-9) will have much brighter days ahead, but Sunny Hills got to the freshman for 13 runs on 13 hits and the Cats right-hander walked 10 and hit three more before Stevens removed her in the fifth inning.

Sunny Hills (20-8) took a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Kaiser (17-13) junior Linda Garcia started an eight-run rally.

Garcia hit a solo blast to start the inning. Garcia later hit a grand slam to give Kaiser an 8-5 lead that stunned Sunny Hills pitcher Riley Nahrwold.

Five of the eight runs were unearned after a throwing error.

Sunny Hills scored at least twice in five of the seven innings to outlast a young Kaiser team.

“Irene is the reason we’re here, so I was going to let her go as long as she could,” Stevens said. “She’s been pitching the (heck) out of the ball and she’s going to be great the next three years. This team only had two seniors in the starting lineup, so we’re going to be tough.”

Nahrwold (17-5, 2.25 ERA) allowed just four earned runs while going the distance despite having a torn knee ligament. She did surrender 13 hits, but struck out six batters including the final three.

“Riley plays much better when she has a little edge to her,” Sunny Hills coach Art Jarman said. “After Kaiser got all those runs after the error, she really buckled down and did a great job. We were down 6-1 going into the final inning last game and we’ve been able to carry the momentum forward.”

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